Aylasia was ever a source of new information, new experiences for Seamus. He wandered through the open marketplace of New Meridian, pausing to investigate thins he still was unaccustomed to seeing. Magic was all around him, and that was still an amazing thing. New York and Boston in his blood still made it hard to imagine practicing magic so openly. But he loved seeing it, even though it usually piqued endless questions he wasn't sure how best to ask. Hamlin had advised him and Siobhan when they first arrived not to let on they were from another world, so Seamus had kept questions to a minimum. He did however simply explain away his curiosity by saying he and Siobhan were from a good distance away, far enough that magic, customs and every day life were different. It served as a lie-free cover to enabled him to be as curious as he wished. Like the questions he had at the moment, as he stopped at a pet stall. Some of the animals within were easily recognizable, and some were... odd, to say the least. Seamus looked down at a kitten that would have reminded him of their cat Murphy back home, had this creature not had rabbit ears and tail.

The pet seller was talking to an old woman with short grey hair.  "Well I don't think those are in existence anymore, but we do have a variety of other creatures."  He said.
"You can't tell me all of them were hunted down.  When I was a girl they were in the backyard."

"I'm sorry," he said. "Those just disappeared about twenty years ago."

"Okay then do you have a--" She pulled out a pair of reading glasses "--A Friskelating Star Mole?  Or An albino fruit bat. Or a half a cup of Salamander Shavings."

The pet stall owner looked a little out of his depth. "I think we have a chameleon, but they are very expensive. You aren't making some kind of Anti-volition potion?"

"Now you know those are illegal." The little old woman tried to sound as innocent as can be.

"Because these are pets.  If you eat these, it will be."

"What kind of person would eat a Friskelating Star Mole?" She asked. "They are poison unless you boil them for over 48 hours."

It was as though the old woman were speaking an entirely new language. Seamus hadn't meant to overhear, but the woman wasn't exactly being quiet. Brows furrowed, he looked up from the... cabbit, perhaps? He couldn't help asking, before he thought better of it, "A friske-what now?" His blue eyes were wide and confused, but again, full of curiosity. He straightened, stepped back from the stall as a badger-frog attempted to investigate his fingers.

"Friskelating.  Its just--"  She made a silly face and held up her feet like paws," she said to the young man. "There are many animals with unique properties and flavors, which can instill a mage with more power.  I've always said that.  Trust me. I am 160 years old."

"We have this," the pet seller offered. "It's a garden hedgehog.  It eats bugs and..."

The hedgehog licked its lips unfurling like a living chestnut. Black eyes and a twitchy nose. His black black eyes looked up at them. "Hello little fellow. What a face you have!" Sasha cooed, picking up the ball of animal.

Seamus blinked. "Did you say flavors?" It was jarring enough to have learned of fairy dust being a commodity here in Aylasia. Now he wondered if it was normal to eat these creatures that seemed more like pets and less like food. Then again, that could have been a cultural thing. There were animals people tamed in The United States that other country had on their dinner plates. "Are you... going to eat these?" He looked with a small measure of worry at the hedgehog she'd just picked up.

The old lady looked at the hedgehog.  "Well you can't.  I mean I don't think that you can eat a potion. And it is not a product you can find on the shelves these day since the law was made." She inspected the little thing, who sleepily blinked in her hands "Aw look at how sleepy you are."

"That will be munt....  Unless you have fifteen bottles of Star Juice," the pet seller said. "If you are a potion master."

"Star Juice is nothing but sugar and stardust and faery dust. I wouldn't use it to clean a pot. I don't make those kind of potions."

"Then 100 munt."

"Munt.  I don't have that kind of munt. In my day you could get a goat, a bottle of Love Potion, and the ham of a griffin for a hundred munt.  Cash money is ruining our town.  There is no way I can spend 100 munt on a spell. It's only going to be good for week." She grumbled, "Look at how mean the man is," while holding up the cute animal.

Seamus opened his mouth and then closed it again. A good amount of what the older woman had said made little sense. The pet seller didn't seemed confused however, so Seamus assumed it was his own lack of knowledge that was the reason behind his confusion. He waffled on saying anything else for a moment and then said, "Er, maybe there's something else you could exchange?" The question was posed to both the woman and the seller.

The old woman hemmed and hawwed holding the hedgehog. "Ha.  It might look like a mole but it is certainly not friskelating."  He said.  The fate looked grim for the little hedge hog.  Indeed he was as good as in the soup, or fancy designer possibly black market potion.

But then he paused looking thoughtfully into the air straight at Seamus, connecting, making eye contact.  And then it let out a soft squeak of a sneeze.

"Will you look at that.  Look it how smart he is.  Oooh."  She pushed back his cute spines.  The hedgehog kept looking at Seamus.  "I think he wants you to hold him."  She handed the little spiky beast over to the vacationer.

Seamus blinked. The hedgehog really was looking at him, and that sneeze was kind of cute. With a smile blooming on his face, Seamus took the hedgehog from the old woman, being careful of its prickly hide. It made that squeaky sneezy sound again, as Seamus held it, and his smile bloomed wider. "He's cute. My wife would be cooing all over him right now." Seamus reached toward it with one long finger, gently poking at its nose. It squeaked again, and toppled over in his hand. He looked back up at the woman. "Are you going to be buying him as a pet?" Not that he wanted it - he and Siobhan already had a cat. In another world. It probably wasn't a good idea to collect pets in a world they wouldn't be staying in for predetermined amounts of time.

"A pet"  She said indignantly.  "It seems kind of silly.  Maybe... Maybe I could keep it in my cafeteria, and do magical research on it."  She rubbed the soft part of his belly.  She didn't want to admit that she was soft on cute little animals.  It made her look like a silly old fool. The hedgehog egged her on further by starting to fall asleep sitting up. "Look at how smart it is.  He thinks its people." It was pretty much a foregone conclusion. "You don't think its too much cash do you?  I have it.  But I can't wrap my head around this cash money stuff. It is so confusing. And seems like a lot of extra work to me."  She shook her head. "Do they use cash money up where you live yet?" She asked the young man.

Well maybe it was more obvious than Seamus thought that he wasn't from around here, but the woman didn't seem disturbed by the thought so Seamus simply nodded. "Yes they do. It's standardized - each bit of money has a face values and prices are set off that value, so it's actually very clear as to how much things are. But I guess it's just as hard for someone new there to know what's a good price as it is for me to know whether or not 100 munt is too much for him." Seamus looked down at the hedgehog and smiled. "I supposed if it's not going to put a hole in your purse, it shouldn't be too much?"

She looked down at her purse.  "I usually do have some cash lying around with nothing to do."  She tried to reason out. "And it would do me better buying something."  She said.  The Hedgehog was unconscious with daily sunshine induced sleep.  She said, "Unless your little wife would like to have him." She said. "Nothing keeps a marriage strong like a man who gives his wife presents."  She said. "Trust me. I've tied the knot 17 times."

Seamus paused at that, bis smile blooming more. "You have a point. And I did come out here to pick up something..." Seamus trailed off and looked at the hedgehog, already imagining Siobhan squealing and tying a pink ribbon around it somewhere. "Well then, if you don't mind I think maybe I should buy it." He reached into his pocked and pulled out a handful of strange looking gold coins. It wasn't geld, but gold was gold. After a little bit of haggling about how much change Seamus should get back, - the seller had no idea just how much this strange gold was worth - the pet seller finally agreed on five less munt that he would have given in change for the same amount of money in actual geld. Proud owner of the adorable sleeping hedgehog now, Seamus looked back at the old woman. "Wait, did you say you've tied the knot seventeen times? Wow, that's a lot of marriages."

"My friend Binny, she stopped at an even twenty." She nodded. "It doesn't seem to be worth it anymore after you get a certain age.  What can you do?  Stay married for the convenience?" She chuckled.  "Maybe if we were werewolves or something." She said, "It might have been easier to stay married with some of those old Ogres. Or if I felt like being faithful."  She shook her head. "Most of them where when I was half your age.  Working in the bar you meet a nice fella... He buys you a drink.  He cheats on you with the girl who works at the bakery.  You get revenge by sleeping with the man... Oh you know how it is."  She patted the boy. "And I know all my friends so I should keep looking, but eh. I like my life. I don't need no man telling me where I can keep my jars. Eh well." She sniffed. "He would have to be good enough in bed ya? And not so damn old." She said. She loved chatting to folk, and giving young men the benefit of her experience. "You don't know know any girls down at the market, do you?" she winked. "Forget if you did, that is another way to break a thread. I don't care what they say, married men and women shouldn't be hanging around each other all alone.  Without no one watching."

Seamus's mouth was practically hanging open by the time she was finished. After a long moment of silence, he finally spoke. "I don't know about you, but my wife and I are faithful." Which was an impressive thing to say about a fairy relationship. Flighty and flirty, most fey didn't get the meaning of the word monogamous. "Maybe I broke with a girlfriend to be with Siobhan, but it's like when we're together, I can't even see anyone else. A pretty girl goes by...? That's nice. She's pretty." Seamus paused and smiled, looking down at the hedgehog, and then back at the woman. "And when we're apart, I'm just counting the minutes until we're together again." He shrugged. "We're just in love and it's not going anywhere." He tilted his head at her. "It's a sad state of affairs here if people don't trust a married person to be around other men or women without supervision. Unless that's merely the custom here, I don't know. And what did you mean by breaking the thread?"

She looked at him "You know sometimes they do just snap, sometimes it doesn't take a long time for the marriage bond to break. Other times it gets faded and dusty. Sometimes it even gets thicker.  Don't you look at me; I've seen it happen with my own two eyes. When things get tough," she said, assuming that everyone knew about marriage threads. "Strange thing about marriage threads. They don't obey any rules. Not like everything else in this city. Sometimes they stay on for years.  I've seen one fella have a thread from his first marriage and his wife died and had to tie on another over it," she continued, "because their love hadn't broken even though his wife was dead. You never know what is going to happen with a marriage thread. Ha. You'll see," she said, gathering her stuff. "Not that it's my business about your marriage. But I worry about a young man. You remind me of my Jack when he was a boy."

Seamus's brows had knit again and he shook his head. "I'm sorry, what exactly do you mean by marriage threads?" There was something different about marriages here in Aylasia, must have been the way she was going on about it. And whatever it was, it was going right over Seamus's head. He let the other things she said slip - she knew nothing about Siobhan, about him, about their relationship. She was just speaking from her own years of experience.  Seamus couldn't imagine being married seventeen times; he expected this one to last forever. The ease of his changeover told him the depth of his love made that a certainty in his eyes. Seamus wondered though, the second he'd asked his question, whether or not he should have reserved it for Hamlin.

"I don't get it," the old woman pondered. "How can you be married without a marraige thread? I didn't think there was much point of a marraige if you didn't have one tying you together.  It would just be... how you say, shaking the sugar shack, ya?" She tried to resolve.  "I must have misheard you.  You must mean you are planning to tie the knot.  It's okay.  Lots of people are shy of such a big commitment and women like a big old party after they get married. I wonder if some of my friends just tied their thread around some guy so I would buy them a marriage present."  She swore that the young man said he was married already. "When are you going to tie the knot with your wife?"  She asked. "In New Meridian it doesn't count unless you tie the marriage thread.  It might be different in other places.  I heard there are places where people just SAY they love each other like a bunch of maniacs, and that is all they have to do.  Like saying how you feel is going to stop you from cheating on your wife with her younger sister."  She shook her head. "Love and words aren't always meant to be together."

Seamus opened his mouth to respond three times, but the old woman just kept talking. When she was finally done, Seamus answered, "We're not actually from New Meriadian - we're visiting for a little ways away. Customs are a bit different there. And I think it's more to do with the couple themselves than a ceremony that dictates who'd cheat on whom. I feel sorry for the people who don't find the happiness in their first marriage that they need to make sure that it's the only marriage they'll have." Seamus resolved to ask Hamlin a bit more about marriage threads, perhaps from the point of view of someone who <i>hadn't</i> had so many failed marriages. Seamus didn't think Sasha was the person to be getting advice and information about marriages from when she'd been though it seventeen times already and apparently still hadn't gotten it right yet. "And speaking of the wife, I think maybe it's time I head back and present this little gift. Little things like this count for a lot."

"I will say though I would like diamonds too," she said smirking "Oh, you are such a cutie."  She hoped that the girl would like the little thing and give it a good home.

"He loves worms and giant beetles," the shopkeeper said.

"Ooooh.  Well that should be no trouble," Sasha said. "You can get those in the Market at the potion store."

"And they need to sleep all day. So don't poke them during the day or they will fall asleep."

Seamus thanked both the shopkeeper and the old woman. He thought about the prospect of giving Siobhan diamonds, and dismissed it immediately. The little fairy was wealthy enough, and though he could be materialistic, he preferred gifts that had purpose, whether it be an adorable pet, a stunning dress, revealing piece of lingerie, or something quaint and entirely unusual. Diamonds wouldn't really do. Seamus didn't think Siobhan would be entirely thrilled with the hedgehog's choice of diet, but he knew they ate more than just worms and beetles. They like fruits, vegetables, and he'd seen plenty of grain and cat-food like hedgehog food about before. In fact, he was certain he'd heard once that hedgehogs could eat high quality cat food. The hedgehog in question was still sleeping soundly and Seamus was all too eager to take him home. "Thank you very much--" he paused and looked at the old woman. "I'm sorry; I never actually asked your name. A bit rude of me."

"My name dear boy is Sasha Petriogarv."  She said, "And if you know you need any insects dried or fresh or alive,  I have a beetle farm behind my house. With lots of tasty little friends."  She poked the hedgehogs nose, it twitched and squirmed but didn't awake.  "Fresh is always better."

She cooed and he shivered and she laughed. "What do you think you will call him?"

Seamus smiled. "I'm Seamus Callaghan, and I thank you for the offer. As for his name? I think I'll leave that up to my wife. He is meant to be a gift, so I should let the receiver name him, don't you think?" Besides, Seamus was curious to know just what Siobhan would call the little creature. Siobhan sort of had a monopoly on cute, so Seamus expected something adorable. He pocketed his change and nodded at the stall owner once more. "It was very nice meeting you," Seamus said to Sasha. "And thank you again." Newly acquired hedgehog in hand, Seamus exited the stall, begging to head back to the apartment Hamlin Graves had set him and Siobhan up in.